It’s only the day after. It still stings. We get it. But when it’s time to look back at it all, despite the crushing Game 7 defeat, the Toronto Blue Jays can take three big wins out of this incredible experience that was the 2025 season.
1. Their role in The Greatest Game 7 in Baseball History
This was a World Series, and a Game 7 for the ages. And that doesn’t happen if there’s just one team involved. The Blue Jays, in fact, seemed to be in control for much of the series (and Game 7). They had the Dodgers on their heels. They nearly delivered the knockout blow not once, not twice, but multiple times.
Jayson Stark in The Athletic called it “the greatest Game 7 of them all.”
Magic Johnson—yes, that Magic Johnson, a co-owner of the Dodgers—likened this series, and this game, to the all-time heavyweight classics:
We were both throwing haymakers, left and right. It reminds me of the great (Muhammad) Ali-(Joe) Frazier fights, when they were going back and forth for 15 rounds — because Toronto kept coming. … So let me just say this: Don’t forget to give Toronto some love. That team probably would have beat any other team, right? And they gave the world a Series that nobody’s going to forget forever.
The Jays were two outs away from winning this legendary game in the top of the ninth before a home run by the Dodgers’ No. 9 hitter tied it.
Then they had the World Series-winning run thrown at the plate—by literally an inch or two.
Then they had the series-winning extra-base hit miraculously chased down and snagged at the wall—by a center fielder bowling over his own left fielder.
Take heart, Jays fans. It’s crushing, yes. But you are forever indelibly etched in history as one half of the greatest Game 7 of all-time, and one of the greatest World Series ever played.
2. Trey Yesavage has arrived
He started the year pitching in Rookie Ball in front of 300+ fans. He finished it by establishing himself as one of the great young pitching phenoms in baseball. With numerous World Series records already under his belt at the age of 22. The Blue Jays have their ace of the future.
3. Jays set a blueprint around the sport for how to build a winner
- A depth offensive approach that features a contact-first philosophy, minimizing strikeouts and increasing baserunners. Relentless, grinding at-bats that also wear down the opposing pitcher. The Jays led all of baseball in lowest strikeout percentage. Through this approach, they were able to identify unexpected stars that contributed immensely to their World Series run: Ernie Clement, Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes.
- Run prevention: Elite defense, up the middle and all over the field. From Alejandro Kirk behind the plate, to Andres Gimenez (at second, then short), to Daulton Varsho in center. A Gold Glove first baseman in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- A team that plays like a team. Consistency and depth. And a real family. “We loved each other. It’s all of us vs. everybody,” said Chris Bassitt (a pending free agent who would love to return).
A team “that could not wait to come to the field everyday,” as Ernie Clement tearfully reminded us.
A stunning and sad ending to the season, to be sure. But these Blue Jays have an awful lot to be proud of.
